The country's largest mobile phone operator Grameenphone, or GP, wants idle spectrums from the government at a discounted rate as opposed to free of charge spectrums sought by three other operators.
To cope with a surge in the new demand due to the increasing data use during the countrywide lockdown, three mobile phone operators — Robi, Banglalink and Teletalk — have demanded that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) give them additional spectrums free of charge.
The operators made the request in a letter recently.
Though GP didn’t join the band then, it is now planning to apply for BTRC’s idle spectrums.
Explaining the reason, director and regulatory affairs head of GP Hossain Sadat said they believe, this is the time, all need to come forward and join hands with the government in fighting back COVID-19.
"While we are making contribution in many forms, principally we cannot support requesting for free allocation of spectrum," he said while talking to the FE.
He said, "We are with the view that spectrum needs can be sorted out in a win-win manner."
Mr Sadat said the government can consider the allocation of spectrum at a discounted rate for a certain period of time.
"This way, govt. would get some money, we the operator would enhance our capability helping our customers to meet their communication needs – this would then be turned into revenue – this would then be shared with government in the manner of revenue sharing," he said
He said that GP has communicated this with the relevant stakeholders and "we believe, if we can sit together, we would be able to work out something in a win-win manner."
Currently BTRC has 27.4 MHz spectrums unallocated in 1800 and 2100 bands, which are generating no value for the economy.
